Unless you happen to eat in a lot of French restaurants or are a big fan of French cooking, lardons are a bacon product most Americans aren’t familiar with.
Lardons are small cubes of thick fatty bacon. They are larger than the “bacon bits” we Americans are familiar with, and they usually aren’t crispy – they have a chewier texture. But like bacon bits, lardons are often used to flavor dishes such as salads, omelets, soups, and potatoes.
Frisee aux Lardons is one of the more common traditional French dishes that uses lardons. This salad is typically comprised of frisee (a french curly lettuce), poached eggs, croutons, and lardons. It’s one of my all-time favorite salads, and every time I encounter it in a restaurant I order it.
As I’ve mentioned before, my friend Macrui recently moved to Paris and she occasionally emails me about the various pork products she has encountered in pork-loving France. The photo here is of pre-packaged lardons she recently purchased to use on a salad for dinner at home. Apparently pre-packaged lardons are as common in France as bacon bits are in the United States.
Since pre-packaged lardons aren’t commonly available in U.S. grocery stores, here’s a recipe for making your own if you want to try your hand at French cooking with lardons.